New season starts in Costa Rica

The waiting ends for Costarrican soccer fans as the tournament kicks off this Sunday with Deportivo Saprissa defending their 4 consecutive championships.

It won’t be an easy task as the rest of the teams have made some important changes not only concerning players but also management wise.

Last season’s runner up, Alajuela have refreshed their team with many young promises, and let go some important figures from past seasons. They also brought a new Argentinian coach to replace former coach Arnaez who didn’t do a good enough job to take away the prize from Saprissa, or the 19 consecutive wins from Saprissa over itÂ’s eternal enemy, Alajuela.

Another big team, Heredia, ended last season with Costa RicaÂ’s historic Paulo Wanchope as coach, and now they added the knowledge and experience of former National TeamÂ’s coach Hernan Medford who was let go due to bad results with the “Ticos”. A couple of new players on the offensive end are promise of better results for this team which hasn’t celebrated a title in over 2 decades.

Always dangerous Puntarenense and Brujas FC intend to take the top spots this year by renewing their team, making some important player transfers, from different teams, including Saprissa’s and Alajuela’s veterans that were terminated at the end of last season.

Liberia Mia has become one of the serious contenders also making important transfers in the past 2 seasons, and now finally giving the team a better base to start from.

The remaining teams are Perez Zeledon, San Carlos, Universidad, Carmelita, Cartago and Ramonense. And they will be all trying to snatch off some points and get a spot in the playoffs at the end of the regular season. Ramonense were promoted from Division 2 taking Santos’ spot, which gives them the chance to be the surprise of this year.

Deportivo Saprissa are once again the team to beat. But every team has a chance to lift the cup, mostly having in mind that it’s the beginning of the road to the world cup 2010 and every player wants to show a good level to have a chance to take part of the National Team.